So,I have recently started reading the Dune series after watching the movie (and although I liked it, I knew I was missing out), so far I am in love with the series.My plans include me going through media design school in order to put myself into the video game making community.At the moment I am a very amateur writer and therefore I like to categories and sort ideas very mechanically.

I have had an idea to make a mod for one of the very popular Total War games by Creative Assembly, based on the Dune Series.I wish to base this off of the true Dune mythos, meaning I would like to put myself as far away from the film and the games as possible (as fun as they are).My problem is that I don't know enough about Dune to flesh-out a game.

I am thinking for the main factions to be the main Landsraad houses (Atreides, Harkonnen, Corrino) but I would like to also include the other prominent factions and even maybe delve into to different time periods.My only standing problem is I don't have enough to base off of in terms of units.

I would love to get any feed back or help and would appreciate it GREATLY.

Warfare in the Dune universe is an interesting subject. On one hand, technology has advanced quite a bit beyond ours. Most notably, gravity (and friction) nullification seems to be possible (and cheap), they have shields capable of absorbing kinetic force, and they have laser guns. On the other hand, there are several major constraints.

The Holtzmann effectAny lasgun intersecting a Holtzmann shield causes an unpredictable amount of damage at both ends. Sometimes it will take out both the gunner and the shielded object, sometimes it will be a multi-megaton Nuclear explosion. And it's quite unclear how this works. It is mentioned that Paul (while at Arrakeen) sleeps underground to protect him from assassins suicide-blasting the house shields, but it is unclear why anyone would ever feel "protected" by a Holtzmann shield. Supposedly, the Great Convention prevents the great Houses from just blasting each other to bits, but that feels contrived. It is quite possible that FH intended the Holtzmann Effect and the Great Convention to be a parody on the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction.

In any case, since we know that shields are used in combat, it follows that lasguns must be strictly VERBOTEN for anyone who isn't completely suicidal. That means we have to stick to slow-moving projectile weapons (the book mentions Maula pistols) and swords and knives.

I'm not sure there's anything in the book about the amount of force a Holtzmann field can absorb. It's likely that this is at least somewhat proportional to its size, e.g. a personal Holtzmann shield can probably absorb the impact of a round of bullets, but not the direct impact of a crashing thopter.

It's possible that, say, a railgun or a coilgun might be able to shoot bullets with such a velocity that they can overwhelm (personal) Holtzmann shields, but again, those might not be very practical.

Projectiles in the Dune universe probably bear a greater resemblance to paper airplanes than to bullets. I can also imagine kites, frisbees, boomerangs, all outfitted with sharp edges, poison, or an explosive payload to compensate for their slow velocity.

Poison gas would be very, very effective in the combat mechanics allowed by the Dune universe, and there's no hint in the novels that any party would be reluctant to use it. The space suits worn by the Sardaukar in the Lynch movie might not be complete bullshit.

The Butlerian JihadMan shall not be replaced. No Drones. No computer-guided missiles. Satellite navigation is probably possible, but it's unlikely to be anywhere near as accurate as modern-day GPS. In fact, consider that most modern Jet fighters are fly-by-wire by necessity, and it's unlikely that Ornithopters are more maneuverable (at supersonic speeds) than what we had in the 1960s and 1970s. At low velocity, they switch to a bird-like mode, probably even more maneuverable than our helicopters.

Most importantly: The Guild PeaceThere's only one faction that rules space, and they don't want the Great Houses to destroy each other. The Guild does this by making it astronomically expensive to transport troops and military equipment. This means the most economical forms of warfare are, in order:

Assassins (they probably get to travel at civilian rates)

Commando troops (if you're going to pay big bucks per soldier, better make them good ones)

Regular soldiers

Military equipment (the Guild probably charges even more for this)

House Corrino rules the universe not because it has the best technology, but because it has the Sardaukar; Second only to the Fremen, the best commando troops in the known universe. This allows it to wage war more cheaply than any of the other houses. The fact that House Atreides was able to train a small unit of comparable skill was enough to make it a threat to the Emperor, and seal its fate.

Note that the Harkonnens are not considered a threat by the Emperor. Why? Because their force is based on numbers and artillery, brought to Arrakis at an astronomical expense. In any prolonged conflict between the Harkonnens and the Corrinos, the Harkonnens would have lost.

Extrapolating from this, a lot of "military" vehicles are probably repurposed civilian vehicles. It's probably cheaper to transport a civilian model ornithopter, or groundcar, and then strap weapons to it, than it is to pay the top Guild rates to transport military 'thopters and cars.

Do tanks even exist in the Dune universe? Why do you need armor when you've got a Holtzmann generator? I can imagine a stealthy, low-profile but speedy groundcar being far more effective. The same logic also makes armored personnel carriers, and even bunkers unlikely.

Airships might make great siege vehicles. They're probably able to carry a big Holtzmann generator, making them practically invulnerable, they move slow enough to penetrate the shields of fortresses, and it'd be very easy to use them to drop bombs or poison gas cannisters on infantry.

Combat is rare in the Dune universeA thing to remember is that the Dune universe (pre-Paul) is fairly peaceful. Warfare is an expensive hobby for the aristocracy. Even though the books describe great feats of martial arts, the population as a whole is unlikely to be very good at it, and the kind of total war we've seen in the twentieth century is completely unknown.

Thanks a lot!This is a great background piece, I understand most of the scientific theory in Dune,but it certainly hurts that combat is actually so rare, therefore more so clouding a clear military structure.However, I definitely like the idea of airships.

On top of that, most of the warfare described in "Dune" is also explicitly said to be unconventional, compared to the usual Marquess of Queensberry rules:

The assault on Arrakeen by the combined Harkonnen/Corrino force is unconventional because the Harkonnens use ground-based artillery. It is mentioned that artillery is usually considered obsolete because of its uselessness against Holtzman shields.

The Fremen fight without shields and ride sandworms. Cool, but it only makes sense on Arrakis. Paul skirts the Great Convention by using atomics against the shield wall.

Paul is only able to unleash his terrible Jihad on the universe because he's able to control the Guild. We can assume that they transported the Fremen at zero charge. It's not a stretch to imagine that Paul commanded them to execute orbital bombardments, deny movement to enemy troops, obliterate the population centers of entire worlds, etcetera.

Actually building a Dune game around CK2 engine makes more sense than the TW engine because:

1. there is very little war in the universe overall2. there is much importance in the dynastic politics 3. there is not that much unit types4. there is more focus on poisoning and treachery5. there is difficulty to create a believable shield warfare

One of the sources outside of the original and hack novels about warfare in dune universe is short-lived dune rpg book.

From what I remember from House Corrino full Atreides force include:26 frigates19 dropships100 ornithopters58 fighters9 infantry brigades (around 27,000 soldiers)

Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune mentiones when talking with Fenring he has "legions" of troops on Giedi Prime so supposedly - 1 imperial legion is around 30,000 troops so we can guess Harkonnens have around 60,000-90,000 troops at least.

Again in House Corrino during the planetary siege Sardaukars had Cruisers, Monitors, Crushers, Decimels, Destroyers, Corvettes and Frigates. During invasion on Ecaz House Moritani had unmanned radio-controlled bomber drones and lightships. I think this all we can find about starships in dune universe.

Dune rpg also mentions shielded military thopters and groundcars with dual mode wheels and suspensors in three variants depending how many troops they are transporting (light/medium/heavy). They can be armed with rockets, artillery and lasguns and bombs for thopters - albeit those are only supplementary, their true purpose are just troop transport.

Regarding the infantry there are two main types - foot infantry and suspensor infantry. There is also infantry that uses kindjals (short swords) and long swords (elite mooks - sardaukar and ducal guards or troops of old) not to mention the fremen which use exotic crysknifes. Each troop usually has also supplementary maula pistol or needlegun, sometimes stunners and lasguns for elite troops. There is little armor but dune rpg mentions plasmesh uniform, plastifiber uniform and powered armor - although they are quite redundant in the era of shields. There is mention of dragoon formations in House Corrino - which could mean if taken very far that infantry could have some sort of napoleonic era formations.

So my proposed unit types are:

SPACE WARFARE:Cruiser - tonnage varies heavier than galleon heavy armed warship can't descent to planetMonitor - 9,125,000 tons 150 crew 25,000 personnel - made from 10 heavy armed frigates that could descent to planetCrusher - tonnage varies used to even crush shielded objects from orbitGalleon - 1,565,00 tonnes 9 crew 50+ personnel heavy armed warship can't land on a planetDecimel - 10,000,000+ tons - made from combined 10 frigates that descent from orbit can land on a planetDestroyer - mentioned only in House Corrino supposedly something between frigate and a cruiser can't land on a planetFrigate - 780,000-1,045,000+ tons 5-20 crew 2500+ personnel can land on planetCorvette - mentioned only in House Corrino supposedly like something between lighter and frigate but can't land on a planetLighter - 2,520 tons 5 crew 20 personnel medium armed can land on planetShuttle - 315 tons 3 crew 20 personnel lightly armed can land on planet

AIR WARFARE:Frigate - used for very heavy air warfare, heavy transport and bombingLighter - used for heavy air warfare, light transport and bombingShuttle - used for medium air warfare, light transport and bombingDropship - used only for medium transportHeavy Ornithopter - used for medium air warfare, medium transport and bombingMedium Ornithopter - used for medium air warfare and light transportLight Ornithopter - used for light air warfare and light transportFighters - used for light air warfareBombers - radio controlled drones used for bombing

Here I go away with my imagination and just bullshit You. Because there are dragoons in House Corrino maybe there can be napoleonic type system of military in the empire?Jaegers - maula on foot (typical for smugglers, mercenaries or Harkonnen)Fussilieurs - pyons on footTiralieurs - house on footVoltigeurs - bondsmen on foot Uhlans - pyons on suspensorsLancieurs - house on suspensorsCuirasseurs - bondsmen on suspensorsHussars - pyons in ground carsChasseurs - house in ground carsGrenadieurs - bondsmen in ground carsCarabiniers - house in thoptersDragoons - bondsmen in thoptersMarines - bondsmen in dropships